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Ontario chapters mobilizing for June 7 provincial election

The London chapter and allies rallied this past Saturday calling for provincial funding to local hospitals to be restored. Photo by Len Elliott.

Council of Canadians chapters are working to highlight key issues in the lead-up to the provincial election in Ontario on June 7.

This morning CBC reports, "Polling suggests nearly half of Ontario voters haven't fully made up their minds, and that makes them persuadable over the next month."

This evening party leaders Kathleen Wynne, Doug Ford and Andrea Horwarth will participate in a live televised debate and the writ - which officially starts the election campaign - will be issued on Wednesday May 9.

Among upcoming chapter activities:

May 10: the Guelph chapter as a member of the Guelph Wellington Coalition for Social Justice will be holding an all-candidates meeting co-sponsored by the Canadian Federation of University Women and CFRU 93.3 FM;

May 14: the South Niagara chapter is co-organizing an all-candidates debate on health care (in St. Catherines) with the Ontario Health Coalition, the Canadian Association of Retired Persons (CARP), and the Retired Teachers of Ontario Foundation;

May 14: the Peterborough-Kawarthas chapter, the Peterborough Health Coalition and four community partners will hold an all-candidates debate;

May 16: the London chapter is organizing for a people's forum to find out what issues matter to local residents;

May 17: the South Niagara chapter and allies are organizing an all candidates debate on health care (in Niagara Falls);

May 23: the South Niagara chapter and allies are organizing an all candidates debate on health care (in Niagara Centre);

May 24: the London chapter will be at the London Health Coalition all-candidates meeting in London North Centre;

May 24: the South Niagara chapter and allies are organizing an all candidates debate on health care (in Niagara West).

And already:

the Guelph chapter has been posting a series of creative memes on their Facebook page to encourage people to vote;

the London chapter held a rally on May 5 with the Ontario Health Coalition, OSSTF, OPSEU, Unifor and the London and District Labour Council to call for closed hospital wards to be reopened and funding to local hospitals to be restored;

the Kitchener-Waterloo chapter co-sponsored a public forum on May 3 with the Ontario Health Coalition featuring British health policy expert John Lister speaking on hospital overcrowding, cuts, P3s and privatization;

the Halton chapter attended the Wellington Water Watchers concert on April 29 to support the call for the provincial government to phase out bottled water takings in Ontario;

the London chapter - a member of the London Health Coalition - participated in a meeting on April 24 to discuss 'What should be done by the next Ontario government to fix the crisis in public healthcare?';

the Windsor-Essex chapter and allies hosted a pre-election 'Healing Health Care' public forum on April 17.

Also, organizers Mark Calzavara and Rachel Small recently developed an Ontario Election Survey that was circulated to our supporters in this province. An amazing 3,845 people responded and told us which key issues will inform their vote. We'll be sharing those results this week so please watch for that in the coming days!